Clothes-line sheave.



C.BOURQUE.

CLOTHES LINE SHEAVE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.17, 1908.

906,999. Patented Dec. 15, 1908.

WITNESSES: mmJm/e m, A Boa/r2100.

. Y 496x491; 64 J" ATTORNEY.

m: NCRRIS PETERS co., WASHINGTON, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLOTHES-LINE SHE AVE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 15, 1908.

Application filed August 17, 1908. Serial No. 448,784.

such as is used for carrying an endless clothes line and my object has been to afford a more convenient means by which the line may be moved out or in when applying or removing the clothes to be dried.

In the customary use of. these endless clothes lines they are moved in or out by direct application to the line itself and the small size of the line and the awkward overhead osition of the hand in operating renders t e work an inconvenient and fatiguing one.

The sheave which is the subject of this application has been designed to overcome these objections by providing it with a secondary groove or driving contact round which an operating cord may be passed which operating cord may hang vertically or be drawn to any convenient position for the operator. Means is also provided in both the clothes line groove and its operating groove to insure an efiicient driving grip of both lines in the grooves of the sheaves.

There are also various secondary features in the construction of the sheave and its attachments to which attention will be drawn in the course of the following s ecification, reference being made to the rawings by which it is accompanied, in which:

Figure 1 shows a general view of an endless clothes line having my sup lementary attachment, Fig. 2, an enlarged e ovation of the sheave which is the subject of this ap lication, and Fig. 3, a section on the line E A in Fig. 2.

In these drawings 2 represents an endless clothes line passing round a sheave 3 at the outer end of its reach and round one 4 at the inner end which should be in any convenient position for the attachment of the clothes to e dried. It is to the improvement of this inner sheave 4 in fitting it to efiect the o eration of the line 2 that my invention is irected.

To enable the groove of 4 to secure a grip of the clothes line 2, which, as the line is frequently of considerable length, is drawn fairly tight, the sides of the groove 4 may be furnished with alternate projections 5, so that the line 2 will lie in a sinuous track in the groove and if the sheave is rotated the line will travel with it.

Secured to or integral with the sheave in which is the groove 4 is provision to receive a supplementary operating cord '7 this may be furnished by providing a secondary groove 6 preferably formed by a series of outwardly inclined projections or spurs 8 between which and the side of the clothes line groove in 4 the operating cord 7 will lie, which passing angularly over the spurs 8 will have an eflicient driving hold of the sheave.

To further increase this hold and avoid the necessity for drawing both sides of the rope 7 tight, a light arm 10 is pivotally mounted on the pin or axle 9 of the sheave, which arm 10 carries at its lower end an oval loop adj acent to the periphery of the sheave and projecting over the track of the operating cord 7 in it. By this loop arm whichever side of the rope 7 is pulled to move the line 2 in or out the slack side of it is drawn round to embrace a longer are of contact on the sheave and the slack side in passing over the edge of the loop is frictionally held a sufficient amount to effect a tightening of the cord suflicient to give the desired grip.

The loop arm 10 may be made of stout steel wire the rope loop being bent at one end and an eye bent at the other to fit the axle pin of the sheave.

As affording a simple, cheap and efficient construction the loop 11 by which the sheave is suspended to a Wall or post may be similarly formed of steel wire bent to form the required loop having eyes bent round to embrace the axle pin 9 which may be riveted therein.

The advantage of this construction is, that instead of pulling direct on the endless clothes line 2 which it is desirable should be at a considerable height from the ground and is therefore exceedingly awkward to operate the line may be operated by a downward pull on the rope 7 which may be made of hemp or cotton and therefore more convenient to handle.

I am aware that prior to my invention an endless wire rope or line may have been opand by a second rope passing round a groove parallel to the foregoing and having similar provision to prevent slip; but I believe the device to be original of providing the rojecting spurs between which and the side of the other groove the operating rope may pass and the provision of the pivotally mounted loop arm by which the slack side of the rope is constrained to embrace a full arc of the sheave, and the construction of the loop arm and the suspending loop of the sheave of steel wire in the manner described.

Having now particularly described my invention and the manner of its construction and use, I hereby declare that What I claim as new and desire to be protected in by Letters Patent, is:

1. A clothes line sheave, comprising a light wheel having adjacent and parallel rope retaining and engaging grooves, said wheel rotatably mounted on an axle pin secured in eyes bent on the ends of a wire loop by which the sheave may be suspended, and a wire arm having an eye at one end by which it may be pivotally mounted on the axle pin of the wheel and an elongated loop at the other end bent to project over one of 25 means for preventing the slip of the rope in 30 the groove, of spurs projecting from the rim of the wheel between which and the side of the groove an endless rope may be passed, means for suspending the sheave by its axle pin and a light arm mounted on the axle pin 35 and having a loop bent over adjacent to the rim through which the loop of an endless rope passing round the spurs may be passed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of 510 two subscribing witnesses.

cYRiLLE BOURQUE.

Witnesses:

ROWLAND BRITTAIN, J. A. ROBILLARD. 

